


Learning Curve

by RizGriz



Series: Fight For Your Future [2]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Anxiety, Canon Character of Color, Canonical Character Death, Diego Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Diego Hargreeves is Bad at Feelings, Diego Hargreeves-centric, Diego gets his GED, Diego makes a friend!!!, Father Figures, Father-Son Relationship, Found Family, Friendship, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Male Friendship, Momma's Boy Diego Hargreeves, Out of Character, Past Child Abuse, Pre-Canon, because Diego is becoming his own person, but it's Al and Diego, general education diploma, mentions of cops, the mansion doesn't have air conditioning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-18
Updated: 2020-06-18
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:16:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24794512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RizGriz/pseuds/RizGriz
Summary: Diego is trying to find his place in the world, so when Al suggests he find out if Father has his highschool diploma it should be straight forwards. Only catch is that he has to call home.When that plan doesn't work out, he's determined to get his GED and chose a path for his life. He never would have guessed he would make a friend.~Basically Diego calls home, gets to talk to his mom, takes a test, accidentally makes a friend, finds a new hobby, and starts down the path to become a police officer.
Relationships: Diego Hargreeves & Al (Umbrella Academy), Diego Hargreeves & Grace Hargreeves, Diego Hargreeves & Original Character(s), Diego Hargreeves & The Hargreeves
Series: Fight For Your Future [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1775503
Comments: 8
Kudos: 56





	Learning Curve

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Bridges](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18504340) by [Gin_Juice](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gin_Juice/pseuds/Gin_Juice). 



> this is a part of a series and it is best if you read them in order!
> 
> A couple of notes before we begin: I have anxiety but have never been in this situation, 
> 
> I don't know how getting a GED works because although i will not be graduating highschool i will go straight into a two year degree so it isn't important, 
> 
> I dont know how to skateboard and I've never been to a skatepark but i do have an interest in rollerskating and have done that before. also, that was a tiny hint at thing to come ;)
> 
> also, new york (since that it where i am setting this) has so many counties!!!! Like, Queens, Manhattan, Brooklyn, and such are all separate counties so i just picked one that didn't seem out of place.

He’s just turned 18 and Diego realizes he has no idea what to do with his life. Back at the Academy everything had been planned for them by Father, but now? For the last year Diego had been going with whatever Al suggested. He’d worked at the gym cleaning equipment, instructing people on hand-to-hand combat, and generally helping Al keep the gym running.

But then Al had to go asking about school. Turns out there were so many more options than Diego could have ever imagined. The only thing that had stayed consistent in all of Al’s suggestions was having a highschool diploma. Diego was still fuzzy on what exactly you learned in highschool, since him and all his siblings had been learning at different levels with different specialties. Klaus had tons of time scheduled to learn a plethora of languages, Five had studied advanced physics before turning ten, Luther was an expert in geometry and chemistry, while Allison had in depth knowledge of psychology. Diego had studied biology and human anatomy, but the idea of going into a medical field seemed daunting.

Logically, he should have a highschool diploma at the house and Father had just never told them because it was an ordinary thing. He just needed to call Mom or Pogo. And if he _really_ needed to, going back to the Academy to retrieve it wouldn’t be so bad. It would be nice to see Vanya and Luther since neither of them had left, to his knowledge.

It was just a phone call. Just one call away and all his possibilities opened up. Just five minutes. It’s not even that long. But his stupid body froze up everytime he tried to pick up the phone, heart beating far too fast, breathe catching making him feel faint which was doubly stupid considering it was _him_. 

But yeah, whatever, he could do this. It was fine. Yeah, he’s got this.

“Hey, Al, could you help me with something?” he asked, quietly coming up behind Al as he wiped down a punching bag. Al jumped a little, swearing as softly as possible. Sometimes Diego forgot that Al wasn’t like Father, that it was easy to sneak up on him by accident. 

“Sure, kid. With what?” Al asked, glancing back at Diego as he kept wiping.

“Could you help me with a phone call? I need to know if Father has my highschool diploma,” he said. Al’s face pulled in a tiny wince at Diego saying _Father_. “I’m not exactly sure what to do or, actually I’m not sure about any of it, so yeah.”

Al turned to fully look at him. He nodded his head, running a hand over his shiny forehead.

“Yeah, family can be tough like that,” he sighed. “Do’ya wanna call now or…” he trailed off into a question.

“Probably now, Pogo should still be up.” Diego said. Pogo had always gone to bed at exactly eight pm, but so did everyone else but Father. “Or Mom might not have hooked up for the night,” he could hear how hopeful he sounded in his own voice and he kinda hated it. In his defense, it had been almost a year since he last saw or talked to Mom.

“Sure, lets call now.” Al said, waving for Diego to follow him up to the office.

Diego closed his eyes and thought of the house number, making sure in his mind it wasn’t the private number for Father’s office. During a training exercise involving each of them finding their way home in the city, Diego had the bright idea of calling home, after all they weren’t given any rules, but he remembered the wrong number. It had been a long night locked outside the house. In the rain. In early april. During the last cold snap of the year.

Diego felt unbelievably disconnected as he watched Al dialed the number. He vaguely heard the ring but felt nothing about it. Until the line picked up. That’s when his heart stopped.

“Hello, Hargreeves’ residence, who am I speaking with?” came a soft, proper english accent. Diego felt his heart warm at the sound of Pogo’s voice. Diego had fond memories of when they were all little and Pogo would lift them up and swing them around in circles until each and every one of them were pleasantly dizzy and laughter bubbled up from their tummies. Of course, that was before Pogo had started using a cane.

“Um, I’m Almanzo Riccio calling on Diego’s behalf.” seeing Al seemingly lose his steady confidence made Diego feel a little twisted up inside. “He was wondering if you had his highschool diploma in your records?”

There was a moment of deafening silence on the line before Pogo seemed to clear his throat.

“How exactly do you know Diego, if I might ask?” Pogo said suspiciously. Diego could see in his mind how the old ape’s lips would purse in suspicion. 

“Diego has been a tenant of mine for the past year and I’m calling on his behalf.” Al was using his business voice, masking his queen's accent.

“Oh, I see.” Pogo said. “Well I am sorry to inform you that none of the children have a highschool diploma.”

Diego faintly heard Pogo’s words, dropping back into the chair shoved in the corner. He didn’t have one? All that schooling and as far as the world was concerned he hadn’t learned anything? Was there no paper trail for his schooling at all?

“What was that sound?” came Pogo’s concerned voice through the phone.

“Just a second,” Al said hastily into the phone. Trotting around his desk to kneel in front of Diego, phone pressed to his chest, Al put a solid hand on Diego’s knee. “Kid, I think you should talk to him, even if it’s just f’r a second.”

Strangely, Diego nodded his head. Pogo’s voice was muffled by Al’s shirt but Diego could hear him asking if anyone was there. Al passed him the phone, the curly cable straining to reach.

“Po-Pogo?” Diego said softly into the receiver.

“Master Diego!” Diego's chest clenched hearing how happy Pogo sounded. Al squeezed his knee reassuringly. “I’m so happy you called, are you alright? Are you coming home?” Diego blinked and realized his eyes were wet.

“I-I’m not-not coming ho-” Diego couldn’t bring himself to say it. The welling tears broke over, falling down his cheeks. Blindly, he reached out grabbing one of Al’s hands, gripping it like a lifeline. “I’m no-not coming back.”

“I expected you to say that,” he could hear how choked Pogo’s voice was, belatedly realising he must sound the same. “But I had to ask. I’m afraid you do not have a degree of secondary school completion. I wish I had something to offer you, Master Diego.”

The worst part was that Pogo sounded genuinely remorseful as if it wasn’t Father’s actions that left Diego with nothing to show the real world.

“It’s okay, I-I,” Diego had to take a deep breath to stop his voice from cracking. “Can I ta-talk t-to Mom?” he asked softly.

“Of course, Master Diego, Let me get her.” Pogo said gently.

The line went silent. Al’s thumb wiped over Diego's damp cheek. Diego felt stupid and childish for crying, it wasn’t that big of deal. Allison wouldn’t be crying, neither would Luther, not that Luther would leave that house. Al readjusted their hands and Diego realised how sweaty his palms were. He felt even more stupid. It had been his choice to leave, no one made him, he should be able to handle this.

“Diego?” Mom's voice sounded so soft and comforting like a warm hug. He let out a sob thinking of how she used to smell when he sat next to her as she embroidered, clean laundry and allspice. When he was little, she would wrap him up in big hugs, pulling him into her lap and rocking side to side until everything seemed better. “Diego, what’s wrong, sweetheart?”

Her voice was so gentle. It felt wrong to call.

“M-m-m-”

“Picture it in your mind, darling.” she said. He could hear the smile in her voice making him choke on another sob.

“Mom, I m-m-miss you,” Al was crouched in front of him, nodding softly with an encouraging smile, wiping at more of Diego’s tears. “I m-miss you s-so much.”

“I miss you too, I think of you everyday and everyday. I hope that you are safe and happy and someone loves you like I do.” she said eliciting another sob. His whole body felt broken and overfilled with emotion and hurt and longing and grief. “Please don’t cry, sweetheart, please don’t cry. I’m so proud of you, even if I miss you.”

Diego nodded even though she couldn’t see him. He cradled the phone even closer.

“I lo-love you mo-” Diego was suddenly cut off by a sound on the other end.

“Number Two, you are to come home this instant!” Father yelled. Diego’s whole body seized up, throwing the phone away from himself as if Father’s voice were acid.

Coming to his feet, Diego could hear his father yelling commands through the phone. Heart pounding so loudly it drowned out Al’s voice-he stumbled backwards-calves hitting the overstuffed chair. The contact seemed to trigger something inside him that screamed to run and hide.

Tugging his hand from Al, Diego bolted down the stairs. The few people in the gym stared at him as he hyperventilated, which again, was stupid considering it’s him. Hearing motion behind him, he scrambled down the hall to the boiler room, clumsily fight with the knob and flinging the door open, slamming it shut behind him. Dizzy. He felt dizzy. But not the good kind like when he got spun around by Pogo.

Dizzy like that time Luther accidentally cracked his skull in training. He hadn’t understood why they all kept staring at him and calling for Mom. It wasn’t like he hadn’t hurt Luther from time to time. Then he’d lifted his hand up to touch the back of his skull. A piece of bone had moved under his skin and the pain ripped through his so violently he’d thrown up on Luther's arm as he kept Diego sitting up.

Faintly, Diego raised a hand to feel the spot as he shakiley went down the few steps to get to his bed. The fracture had healed oddly and Diego could feel the ridges of where the bone knit itself back together. Collapsing onto bed, the real bed Al had gotten him after his first month living in the boiler room, Diego blindly reached out for Ben's hoodie. Pressing it to his face, Diego took deep breaths. It smelled like cheap laundry soap and dryer sheets and a little like Diego’s deodorant. 

He missed Ben. He missed Mom. He missed Klaus. And Vanya. And Pogo. And Allison. And Five. And Luther. And he missed them all so much his body was going to tear itself apart, and so much of it felt like his fault. It was his fault Ben died, and if Ben hadn’t died Klaus would have left on a drug binge. It was his choice to run away, and if he hadn’t Mom wouldn’t have to think of him everyday hoping he was okay, and Vanya wouldn’t be so alone since Five disappeared, and Luther wouldn’t be the only one left, forced to fight alone.

Great, heaving sobs tore through him leaving a raw feeling in his throat. Every one left his stomach clenching to fight back a wave of nausea. Desperately he rocked himself back and forth. The mattress springs squeaked in protest.

With every back and forth he told himself that he wasn’t the only one who left. Wasn’t the only one who realised they were going to die. Wasn’t the only one who realized Father was going to get them all killed. 

The door opened letting in a sliver of light that Diego pressed his face further into Ben’s hoodie to avoid. Al’s heavy footfall seemed to echo around the room as he slowly walked down the stairs as if surveying the damage. 

“I may not know a whole lotta about your father, but I know you shouldn’ listen to ‘im.” Al said softly. “An’ I know it seems hopeless, but now we know whatcha gotta do, kid.”

Al sat at the end of the mattress, Diego uncurling just enough to peak out at him.

“Wh-what?” Diego stuttered out.

“We’re gonna getcha a GED, kid!” Al said lovingly smacking Diego's knee a few times. 

````

The librarian had made it sound simple when she explained the process but now that he was actually here it didn’t feel simple. Diego and about thirty other people were sitting along the walls of a hallway waiting for the proctor to let them in. It was obvious that Diego wasn’t the youngest person taking the test but most of them were anywhere from a few years to a few decades older than him. One middle aged man kept shooting glances around at all the younger test takers almost enviously.

Al had driven him to the highschool. While Diego had been silent the whole ride, nerves twisting tightly in his stomach, Al had given his all into a shitty peptalk. The sentiment was nice but Al saying stuff like ‘you’re gonna knock it outta the park, kid’ or ‘I bet you’re smarter than everyone else that’s gonna take that test today’ didn’t really help. 

Glancing up and down the hall at everyone else, Diego had this horrible feeling that nothing he’d learned would matter. That maybe all that time and effort and pain and disappointment would be for nothing because he’d turn out to be stupid. He hadn’t told Al, but Diego had decided that if he flunked this test he’d go back to the Academy. 

Diego had never been the smartest, Five had held that position, or the most resourceful, that had been Allison, or the most calculated, Luther always had been. The only thing Diego had going for him as a member of the team was that if Father wanted something done quietly, he could do it. In fact, Father had sent him on more than one solo mission. Five had also been sent on a few, but apparently Five was too abrasive whereas Diego rarely even spoke to the people Father had hired him out to.

But none of his weapons skills, dexterity, endurance, or intimate knowledge of anatomy would help him now.

A door squeaked making everyone in the hall wince, and an older woman dressed in muted browns walked out. She looked them all up and down before flipping through some papers in her hand.

“If you don’t hear your name come see me,” she prefaced. “Robinson, Gyle, Adamson, Riviera, Boyle, Harpe, Crafton, Javers, Hargreeves,”

Diego zoned out after she said his name, instead staring at the dingy, scuffed up linoleum, toeing at a crack with his shoe. They were his shoes from the Academy, but luckily Al had gotten ahold of some second hand clothes. Blending in with everyone else had been his goal and it seemed like he was. A pair of well worn jeans, a t- shirt softened by a hundred washes, and Ben’s hoodie even though it was starting to get warm.

“Alright, follow me!” the lady snapped. There was a scurry of movement, people collecting their jackets and bags and backpacks before following her into the room she came out of. 

In the room sat three dozen cramped looking school desks. The school room at the Academy had old fashioned school desks where the bench of one row was connected to the desktop of the next, but these looked far newer. He sat down just to the left of center, pulling out one of the #2 pencil Al had given him. The irony hadn’t been lost on either of them.

“You will turn the test over when I tell you to start.” the lady said, passing out stacks of paper stapled together. “There will be no talking, you must ask me, your proctor, for any bathroom breaks but know that any and all breaks will be counted as part of your test taking time. There are four sections and each section will be approximately an hour and forty-five minutes with breaks between each round of testing. Any questions?”

Diego’s whole body tensed. Al hadn’t said it would take seven hours to do all the testing! And sure, Father had them do some very long testing and training sessions but this seemed so much worse. This seemed so much more final. What would happen if he messed this up?

His eyes were glued to the paper in front of him, breath quickening, when he felt a tap on his forearm. Glancing over to see who had touched him, Diego met eyes with a boy about his age. He had dark skin, a bright smile, and a head full of small braids.

“Hey, you’re gonna do fine, promise! My cousin did this last year and he’s chronically stupid.” the boy said quietly, glancing up to the proctor who was turned away.

“Thanks,” Diego whispered back. He wasn’t sure what he should say, but it seemed to be the right thing because the boy smiled again before turning back to his own paper.

“Ready, and begin!” the lady said loudy. Suddenly everyone in the room turned their papers over and began intently reading. Diego flipped his over, his eyes catching on the first question.

_Which of the following contributed to the fall of the Berlin Wall?_

Diego read all the possible answers, filling in the bubble for option C.

````

The first round of testing was over and Diego felt a little better about his chances. He sat against the wall of the hallway, thumbing the zipper of Ben’s hoodie, when the boy from earlier sat down beside him.

“I never caught your name, I’m Aaron.” he said, sticking his hand out to shake. Diego cautiously took his hand shaking once.

“I’m Diego,” he said softly.

“Cool, so what brings you here today, Diego?” Aaron asked, slouching against the wall and sticking his left leg out into the walkway, earning a few glares from the adults around them. His legs were longer than Diego's and he guessed Aaron was probably three inches taller than him.

“The GED test?” Diego said uncertainty. Wasn’t that why they were all there?

“Well sure, but why are you taking the test instead of graduating? Like, I’m doing it cause I wanna go straight into a trade school to become a welder, so highschool isn’t important.” Aaron said.

“Well, umn,” the lady’s voice from the youth shelter was still stuck in his mind and Diego wasn’t sure how much he should say. “I was homeschooled but it turns out my siblings and I never graduated, so I need the diploma before I do basically anything, so.” he said awkwardly

“Oof, that sucks man. So how did that work, homeschool and all?” Aaron asked.

“I don’t know, I mean, I've never gone to _school_ school, but our mom taught all our lessons. Then we stopped having group lessons because Father wanted us to focus on our strengths.” Diego hadn’t talked about the Academy with anyone other than Al. It felt weird to talk about it when the other person had no idea he’d been a kid superhero. That to them he was just a kid who grew up in a weird family.

“‘Father?’ that’s some proper highbrow shit!” Aaron laughed a little to himself but stopped suddenly when he glanced over and saw that Diego wasn’t laughing. 

“What do you call your father?” Diego asked slowly. Father had never allowed them to call him anything different. Except there had been that one time Luther was really out of it after getting hit pretty hard in the head, and accidentally called him ‘dad.’

“Well I call mine dad, or pop. but umn,” Aaron went weirdly quiet for a second like he wasn’t sure what to say. “I guess it’s not that weird to call your dad ‘father,’ I mean, it is called father’s day, so.”

Diego was spared the awkwardness of having to respond by the proctor lady calling them back in for the next testing period.

````

“Hey, wait up a second!” Aaron called, busting out the highschool’s front doors to catch up with Diego. “Look, I know that was kinda a dick thing to say during the first break, but if you want, I always hang out at the skate park on Fiske and Parkway on Saturday afternoons if you wanna come by and hang out?” He really looked sincere, bright smile and big eyes.

“Yeah, I’ll see if I can make it,” Diego said. He could see Al’s truck parked and idling in the fire lane. It was gonna get the guy a ticket one day. “I’ve got to go, and thanks!”

Aaron gave him a half wave before turning to head back into the school. Diego swiftly walked down the sidewalk, slipping into the passenger side of Al’s truck.

“So! How’d it go?” Al asked, eyes bright with excitement.

“I think I did okay,” Diego said with more confidence than he thought possible. And weirdly, he did think it was gonna turn out okay. Al clapped him on the shoulder in congratulations, shooting him a wide, genuine grin. “And I think I might have made a friend?” he said hopefully.

“Might have?” Al asked. “Kid, you either did or you didn’t.”

“Well I’m not sure but he told me when he’s at a skate park and said I should come hang out,” Diego said in a rush.

“That’s great!” Al said. It was weird talking about a friend. He rolled the word around in his mind as Al pulled out of the fire lane to drive them home to the gym.

“What does hang out mean though?” Diego asked suddenly, making Al laugh.

“You’ve gotta lotta learn, kid,” Al laughed out.

````

  
  


Diego had asked some of the people from the gym and it turned out the skate park wasn’t that far. Al insisted on giving him a five dollar bill before letting him walk the half dozen or so blocks to the park with strict instructions to be back before 8pm.

The air was still chilly but the sun made it too warm to wear a jacket so he’d left Ben’s hoodie back at the gym.if you looked out the right window of the Academy you’d be able to see a park with trees and lots of green grass and even a fountain. Diego used to daydream about laying in the fountain water when the summer heat made the whole Academy unbearable in their uniforms. Oddly enough, Diego had never seen Father sweat. Of course, Luther would deny being hot even as sweat rolled down his face. The rest of them would go up to the dark, empty room on the fourth floor that had a ceiling fan, and lay on their backs in just shorts and undershirts.

The heat had always made Ben’s ‘friend’ more insistent, thrashing around inside his gut, so Vanya would sneak an ice pack out of the infirmary for Ben to lay on his stomach. Absentmindedly, Diego wondered what Luther was doing, if he was laying in that dark, empty room by himself. Sometimes Diego felt like he didn’t deserve to leave. Al would always say you didn’t have to deserve to be happy, but then again, Ben didn’t deserve to be dead.

“Hey, Diego! You made it!” he heard Aaron call out, distracting him from his thoughts. Really looking at the skatepark, Diego suddenly got nervous. The whole park was concrete and it looked like a dozen small, shallow swimming pools. Pools like he’d had to train in.

“Are these just drained pools?” Diego asked hesitantly. He didn’t want to look stupid.

“Naw,” Aaron said, shaking his head, “The sides of a pool would be way too steep, these are made so you can skate up the sides and do tricks and stuff.”

“Oh, yeah. I guess that makes sense.” he said, watching as someone on a skateboard rolled over the edge of one of the pools, darting down one side and smoothly gliding up the other side. Aaron saw him staring and grinned.

“Yeah, that guy’s really good, like really good.” Aaron said, nodding to himself. “You ever been on a skateboard?”

Diego shook his head, Aaron waving for him to follow. They walked around the edge of a pool to where a few other guys sat. Each of them had a skateboard.

“This is my brother, Jefferson. Jefferson, this is my friend from the GED test, Diego.” Aaron said, pointing out one of the guys that looked similar to him. The rest of the guys gave half waves before standing with their boards. “Come on, I’ll show you the basics,”

````

The envelope sat between them, unopened. Al sat on his side of his desk, Diego in the stuffed chair he pulled up. The letter was from the school board. It was thin and that’s what worried Diego so much. If it was good news it would be thicker, right?

“You gotta open it sometime, kid.” Al said, even though he was just as hesitant to touch it. 

Heavy footsteps came up the stairs and the door to the office opened.

“Hey, Al-”

“Not now, Tommy.” Al said quickly. Tommy looked at the envelope between them. 

“So Diego got his grade back, that’s good, right?” Tommy asked. 

“Haven’t read it yet,” Al said shortly.

“The two of you’ve been up here almost an hour! How have you not read it?” Tommy said. Diego swallowed his fear and quickly grabbed the letter. Tearing it open, Diego felt Al and Tommy's eyes on him, the pair having gone silent. There were two pieces of paper that came out. The first one said:

_Mr. Hargreeves;_

_We are pleased to present you with your General Education Degree. You passed the all four parts of the testing for an average grade of 94%. Enclosed within is your copy of the degree. There is a copy held in your records at the county school board. We wish you luck on your future academic and employment achievements,_

_Mrs. Margaret Whithers, Nassau County School Board Director_

“Oh my God! I passed!” Diego breathed out in disbelief. “Al, I passed!” his eyes were misty with happy tears, looking up at Al. Al looked like he wanted to cry too.

“I told you you’d do great, kid! What’d I say?” Al said, coming around the desk to wrap Diego in a firm hug.

“Congrats kid!” Tommy said, clapping Diego on the back.

“Get the fuck outta here you asswipe,” Al said to Tommy without any real bite. Tommy laughed as he turned to head back down the stairs. “I’m so proud’a you kid, you don’t even know.” Al said softly, his hand coming up to rest on the back of Diego's head as he held him close. Diego just hugged back harder.

````

Al had suggested calling the Academy to let Mom know that he’d passed but after the disaster of the last call he was hesitant. Then he realized he could send a letter to Mom. He’d just written a note about his grade, job prospects, and his new friend. At the end he’s written a little extra blurb.

_P.s. I couldn’t have done any of this if you hadn’t been such an amazing mom and teacher, thank you_.

Diego hadn’t told Al but on his way back from mailing his letter, he stopped by the nearest police station. An older man sitting behind a big desk greeted him as he walked in the front door.

“Hello, how can I help you, young man?” the man asked.

“I was wondering how I could apply to start training to become a police officer?” Diego asked.he was aware he didn’t exactly look the part, hair long enough to start curling at his neck, clothes a little baggy and clearly well used but the man’s face lit up.

“You’re the second one today! I’m Officer Higgins but you can call me Walt,” he said, holding out a hand for Diego to take. Diego reached out and gave a firm shake. “Good grip you got there! The recruitment officer is almost finished with the other prospect so he’ll be out to get you in a few minutes.”

Diego nodded and went to sit down on one of the weird plastic chairs. The seconds on the clock ticked away as Diego got wrapped up in his mind. Should he have talked to Al about this? Was this really the smart choice? Mom would be so worried, but she’d also let them go on missions as kids and this wasn’t that different, right? What if they found out he was from the Umbrella Academy and kicked him out? Would everyone know who he was when they heard the name Hargreeves?

“Okay, everything is sorted out, just report on monday morning at 7am sharp. You came in at just the right time, Ms. Patch.” a middle aged man was saying as he walked a young woman to Officer Higgins’ desk. She was radiant, like the sun was beneath her skin and she seemed so steady and confident. Diego mentally smacked himself for thinking that. Allison would have actually smacked him if she had any idea.

But this woman was so beautiful. Diego forced himself to look away, after all, Mom had always said staring was rude.

“So you want to become a cop?” a voice said. Diego’s head shot up to see the man who had walked out with the woman. 

“Yes sir,” Diego said, looking that man straight in the eyes. The man seemed to look him over for a second before speaking.

“Then follow me,” he said, turning to go back down the hallway he’d come from, Diego hastily following.

**Author's Note:**

> Who caught the nod to Aaron and Jefferson Davis, Miles Morales' Uncle and father??!!!?
> 
> thank you so much for read!!! you're comments mean everything to me!
> 
> if you have any suggestion for future instalments drop a comment and subscribe to the series to get updates! Also, the series that inspired this sooooo beyond belief and you should really go read it!


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